Roland MicroCube Combo

Like a Roland multi-pedal with a speaker

Good sound in the store through speaker and through headphones made me buyit for a test run. I got it home and used the line out to put it through my system into the computer (Cubase) and it surpassed expectations. The results were very impressive. The manual states that the modeling works better using the line out signal and I agree, though the speaker is pretty good considering this is a 2W amplifier. I like that there are modulation effects followed by echo or reverb...yes! Effects are limited but useable. Small complaint is that the acoustic guitar modeling includes some noise in it which is gated but noticeable. I have found this to now be an ideal amp DI for my studio, and will also take it to jams and just plug into the PA so I don't have to haul my Fender Concert around. Nice deal for the money.

Very solid except too bad about the wall-wart power supply.

Roland are fine where I am (Toronto Canada).

Good value vs price does what I need it to.

I don't post too many reviews at HC, but this product tickles me enough to want to crow about it a bit.

For the size and especially price, this is a very full-featured and good sounding amp (remember I said with respect to its size). Roland has "overloaded" a couple of the knobs with quite a few features - I'm speaking of the efx and delay/reverb knobs - but that keeps the price point down and the end result is quite usable.

I play rock, blues, try to play jazz, and occasionally do acoustic style strumming nonsense. This amp handles it all, but those that want a battery powered Mesa Recto will be very happy! 8^)

The only feature I wish for is a 450-ish millisecond delay, so that I could do my "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" imitation. I think it goes to about 250ms (wild guess).

I have five or six hours of playing on it on batteries (the AC adaptor has not been used yet), and it's still going strong. I initially had it running on rechargeable NiMh batteries, which worked fine, but I wanted to see if normal Alkalines might result in more volume - which they don't. I'll return to using NiMh rechargeables after this set of Alkalines goes dead.

I give the product a "10" with reservations, given how many 10s are given on H-C, but I do think this product deserves it as I've tried to point out.

Like another reviewer (the guy with the / characters in his name), I wish the speaker were just a little bigger, to get a little more bottom end. On the other hand, more bottom end would mean more wattage required, which would mean shorter battery life. I believe that in the end, Roland made the right trade-offs to create a battery-powered guitar amp.

The volume level is quite variable w.r.t. the selected amp model - clean amps (Acoustic and Jazz Chorus) are almost not quite loud as I'd like, and yet I can drive just about anybody out of the room (especially my dogs!) with the Recto model set at 5 or 6.

The other thing I've noticed is that the COSM modeling does this weird thing with my PRS Custom 22, where the bass part of the sound gets a little distorted as it decays. It doesn't do this nearly as much with my Fernandez Retrorocket Pro (Sustainer-equipped) guitar, so perhaps this is due to the PRS having hotter pickups. For me this is not overly objectionable and I don't think too many listeners would notice.

I've had it for a week. My past experience with Roland gear would give this a "9" - I've had a lot of their gear over the last 30 years and the only problem I've ha in all that time is a bad rotary encoder in my GP-100 rack mount preamp/effector.

I have never had a reason to call or email them, so "No Opinion".

I've been playing since the early 1970s. I currently have four other (tube) amps, including a Fuchs modded Fender Deluxe, a Framus Ruby Riot (mein gott what a lead tone!), a Mesa Maverick, and a Matchless Skyliner. This will sound weird but I am just as excited about this little monster as I have ever been about an amp - mostly because it runs on BATTERIES and I can disrupt any party or public gathering with extreme prejudice! (Just kidding, but I did tote it over to the neighbor's the other evening and we had a fine session of "name those 70s/80s/90s tunes". Fun Was Had By All.)

I wish the clean tones were just a little more loud; I wish the delay was a little longer... BUT I didn't really compare it to other similar products (Vox makes one) because I have had several Roland COSM-based products and I'm a believer in the tech, so thus came forward my credit card.

I think everyboby knows the features... So I jump it.
Roland site explains very well... so check it out!

Very loud!!! Unbelievable for its size!
For me, it sounds great for a bed room amp!
I will never expect it sounds like some real tube amps with 4x12 cabs because I'm very sure that Roland designed it for practicing purpose.
I bought it yesterday and today I'm really amazed 'cos it sounds so much better than any kind of practicing amps with 8 inch speaker in this price range. (I already had Crate GX-15, GFX-15, Fender Frontman 15, Marshall MG-10... just you name it...)
Trust me! If you are after a great bed room or practicing amp, this is it!!!

Roland and Boss!!!
No more words!!!

Never dealt with them.
But generally speaking, big companiey hardly respond customer's questions.

It costs about U$ 120.00, right?
Yeah, absolutely fantastic value!!!
I have also Roland JC-120, Marshall AVT, Mesa Boogie combo(thay are too loud to be bedroom amps)
I wanna also try Vox DA-5 which has more simulation models and bigger speaker. But at this point, I'm really satisfied with this one!

The features have been covered in detail in other posts, so I'll just jump a few lil things I wish were different or improved. 1) The power switch should be on the top of the amp somewhere, it gets lost in the rear location. A flimsy push button exposed to potential damage does not make a good power switch imo, and a better design would be a small rocker switch atop the amp where it's easy to engage and offers some protection from getting banged up. 2) The speaker could have been a tad larger to handle lows a little better. 3) The intensity of the effects is overkill, I wish they had a more subtle range of adjustment. Other than that, I dig this amp a LOT!

For a full featured and portable 2w amp with a tiny footprint for no more than the price of a mid-priced pedal, this thing just flat out rocks. I found sounds I like from all of the models, though the Brit and Rect were my personal favorites. The Stack has a great clean sound too if you back the gain down a good deal. You can ramp it up bit by bit for some hair too. The Black Panel sees the least use, and the JC model is pretty flat unless you get it wet with some chorus. I don't think it's realistic to expect state of the art modeling from a $100 practice amp, but the bottom line is that this is a GREAT sounding practice amp. It's hard to get bad sound out of it unless you dime the effects. I don't use the effects much, but they can give a tad bit of texture to certain things that call for it. The really nice thing is the sounds are versatile enough to emulate whatever it is you'd like to work on at the time. The Brit model oozes classic rock crunch, the stack is my favorite clean, and the crushing R-fier is great for chunky raunch and gain laden leads. I give Roland a lot of credit for the sound from this lil amp. Oh and one more REALLY important aspect, it's a VERY quiet amp. There is some sort of noise gate circuitry in play, but it is well done and subtle, as it doesn't step on your signal at all.

I haven't owned it long enough to comment on reliability as I was eager to post a review on this very pleasing amp. If it holds up half as good as my gig battered TU-2 though, I'll be happy.

Never dealt with em

Overall I have to give it a 10 despite my nitpicky comments in the Features section above. This thing is a joy to play, and makes me want to play more. I crave high gain at low volumes when it sounds good, and this amp fits the bill better than I could have anticipated. Plus the small size lends itself to plopping on the couch and making every adjustment within easy reach. How many amps can you put on a table (or in your lap) within arm's reach to make adjustments as you jam away. I've read lots of people who praise the newer Vox DA5 for having 3 adjustable parameters per effect etc etc. Seriously though, would you rather plug n play with good sound and instant gratification? or do you want to sit there deciding between 300 and 320ms of delay all day. *rolls eyes* I didn't want a small amp to get buried in knob twiddling and effects anyway, and if the cube had NO effects at all, I'd still call it a tremendous value.

After a 144 reviews I don't think I need to describe the features. Mine is the RED - which is more a lighter ?lipstick? red than I expected. Looks good, makes the amp seem a little more hi-end.

My stage/combo amp experience is robust, lately I've been auditioning small practice/studio amps, (Fender Cyber, Fender Champ, Vox, Ibanez). I have owned the Roland Cube 30, but didn't like it. The clean was far too digital sounding and it was too in-between a bedroom and band practice amp. I like this MICRO much better.

This is a true bedroom, solo practice amp. It's great at what it does. A good concept well executed.

I think the distortion is fairly good, I was was surprised how think the RECT setting is. The cleas sounds a little better to me than the Cube 30, warmer and less ice picky.

It does not handle volume well, the speaker will fart out on the bottom almost immediately. On the fip side, the headphone out is terrific, very noiseless hi-fi sound. I think it sounds better than the clips on the website, but you just can't push it. For what it is, it gets a great mark. If it could handle a little more output it's be perfection for a true mobile practice amp.

I've never had a problem with Roland stuff, but everything dies unexpectedly. Not cheesy like that parts used on some of the Vox amps.

Unless you plan to use your little practice amp to wake the neighbors or compete against some drummer, this is the one to have. It will fit in your suitcase. For the features, there is nothing like it at this price and footprint - and there is alot of pure junk out there.

Just buy it.

As a follow up to my previous review....

I tried running this through every speaker type known to man. Home stereo full range (sounded terrible, by the way), mid-range woofer car audio, full-range car audio, and several 8, 10 and 12 inch guitar speakers from Celestion, Eminence and Jensen. Truthfully, they all sound like crap compared to the 4" speaker which is in this amp already. If you notice, the stock speaker has an additional magnetic donut attached to the back of the magnet which must tune this speaker perfectly to this amp. When using the stock speaker, you do get a little buzziness on clean settings, but it's not an overwhelming thing, and doesn't really detract from the clean sounds usability, so I hope you don't get that from my previous review. All in all, this little amp pretty much rocks, and as I mentioned before represents the best tone you can get at this volume level. So, don't waste any time trying to upgrade this things speaker, it's not going to make the tone better in the least. But I had to try.

So far, so good.

See previous.

I just love this thing. I think it's because it's like a little prize you'd get in a cereal box, but a really cool one. It would'nt surprise me if they started including these in the wrappers of guitar magazines along with all the CD's and other crap they cram in there. It's so fun to sit down late at night with a guitar mag, or some other learning material and be able to play it quietly with some decent tone. Makes learning fun again. So when you fire up your larger amp, you sound like you have a clue. For what it is it's a 10.

This amp offers loads for little, see the other reviews for the listings but given that you get the effects, reverb and amp modelling in such a bargain package I can only give it a ten

Have run this through clean-picking, mellow jazz, dirty blues and psychotic metal styles. Don't care that it's only teeny watts with a tiny speaker IT SOUNDS MEATY and better than most 8-10" practice amps. Plenty loud & sweet enough for the lounge/bedroom/shed/bus....

Nothing broke yet, Roland gear is pretty solid and this little tank feels solid and well put together.

Ain't had call to use them

I have been playing for 30 years and currently play a mix of pick-up'ed steel strung acoustics (6/12) and a couple of solid bodies and a semi-acoustic jazz. I have always been strapped for cash and could only have dreamt about such a brilliant amp as a youth.
I tried numerous practice amps including the Marshall (nice) and the Roland's big brother.....both more than twice the cost but not worth the extra roubles (for practice purposes)
As the other folks said "BUY IT!!!" it's the berries !
For chrissakes it only costs the same as a half-decent pedal...it's a complete and total bargain!

It has everything a beginning guitarist should have, or that a more advanced guitarist could live with at 2 a.m. when the house is quiet. One gain, volume and tone control, a amp type selector, and a modulation effects group (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremelo) and a time based effects control (delay and reverb). It's also got a tuning fork tuner which is really cool. It's touch sensitive, so the harder you press it, the louder it goes, just like a real tuning fork. It tunes to the A harmonic (5th string, 5th fret harmonic) and can be used to tune 1/2 step or a whole step down. Very good as you should learn to hear the correct tone, instead of seeing lights. This amp puts out 2 watts of power into a 5 1/2" speaker. It also has a recording / headphone out, and a CD/Line level input. Also runs on batteries. It's really small.

The speaker is the achilles heal of this amp. I took it out, and it is a very well built speaker, very heavy magnet for its size, but nonetheless, it is a 5 1/2" speaker that buzzes when playing low notes on clean settings. This should be forgiven to some extent, as it would be very difficult to design a little dinky speaker that plays distortion well at 2 watts output that also does cleans perfectly. Either you get a speaker that breaks up at low power for distortion or one that doesn't for cleans. Roland chose breakup. You could probably do both well, but then you've designed a $75 5" speaker. Anyway...the sounds on this aren't that bad. However, if you go to Rolands site and listen to the Robert Marcello demo songs, don't think you'll get it to sound that good. You can tell that they used the MicroCube as the basis for the songs, but, they also recorded it in a very professional ($$$$) studio, and as such, they got a lot of the vacuum tube warmth/tone from their mic's, mic preamps, compressors and eq's. Not to mention Robert Marcello is somewhat massively better than most of us. Those songs were not done with a cheap mic into a Boss recorder, nor were they done with the Direct Recording Output, as that does not provide the live mic'd sound you'd hope for. It does work in a pinch, but, amps always sound best when a real guitar speaker is mic'd. Notice also, that the non-R.Marcello Blackface and JC clips are strummed very, softly. All that said, this is a decent little amp for the cheap price, and it's a great amp for it's intended purpose. It will give you a nice palette of the main sounds of guitar music (Acoustic (Acoustic), Jazz (JC120), Country /Clean Rock (Blackface), Pop (Brit Combo), Rock (Classic Stack), and Hardcore (RFier)). So, it's a great amp as you can get these tones in a format that's quiet enough to practice with, with some decent effects to keep it interesting, and you might just become a better guitar player because you can play the same riff 10,000 times at 2 a.m. without anyone else hearing you. Plus, you can screw around with different styles. I feel that once you have this little amp to practice with it will be a frequently used tool to get better. You won't probably use it to play with other musicians because the tone of each amp model isn't that super-stellar as some would have you believe, and I'd never use this on stage because it quite frankly sucks compared to any decent tube amp with a decent speaker. That said, now that I own one, I can understand why John Petrucci uses this as his warm-up / bus amp. It's really handy, quite versatile, and so cute. It is the best tone you can get at such a tiny volume level, and there are many practice situations when that is extemely useful. As a last thought, I don't think I'd use super-high output pickups like Super Distortion, or EMG actives with this as I think the input gain is easily overdriven into digital clipping, thus making the buzzing worse.

Roland really builds quality stuff from my experience with them. Insides look like printed circuit boards, but I'm sure they'll last. Feels really solid. Wall wart is kind of odd, but it would be stupid to put an internally mounted transformer into a 2 watt amp. I'm pretty sure this will last a long time.

I once sent something back to them to be repaired, and to my surprise it came back like a week later completely fixed. Use their 800 numbers, clearly mark your packages, and don't be a prick, and usually people are pretty easy to deal with.

All the amp sim's are fun to play with, and I like the fact that I can play late at night and no one can hear me except me. I like the fact the the effects are usable (subtle), and not over-the-top. They are about the amount of effect that you'll actually hear on a professional recording. The speaker is marginal, and I'd really like something better. For all you considering a replacement, it is a 4 ohm speaker. I believe you could fit a 6 1/2" speaker into this case. I tried running this into a 1x12 Celestion 75 watt cab, but that really killed the tone of the amp models. I believe that ideally you'd want no more than a 15 watt 8" speaker for this amp. Maybe a full range car audio speaker would work. Hmm. Now that I think of it, that's probably the answer, a decent 4 ohm 6 1/2" co-axial car speaker. Remember, it's an amp modeler, not a tube amp. Thus, the actual amp does nothing more than cleanly reproduce the digital pre-amp/amp (modeled) tone (the actual amp doesn't contribute to the tone the way a tube amp would in a non-modeler). The speaker on this looks somewhat full range, and the Celestion I tried rounded-off the top end too much. I'll try hooking it up to a regular home stereo speaker to see what it sounds like before I say any more (you won't blow the amp if you hook it up to an 8 ohm speaker for a bit, it's solid state). All in all, an excellent amp for the cheap price. As a practicing guitarist, I'll always have this little thing. It's 11:41 pm on a Tuesday, my wife and kid are asleep, my house is quiet and I'm bored, so I think I'll go play it now. Best Regards, JR11

Made this year (2006) I guess, in China.

I won't go into detail - read the other reviews and you'll get the picture.

A 2 watt amp with a 5 inch speaker? Don't knock it until you've heard it!

If you can't be bothered to use headphones and you want a practice amp that you can turn up just enough to be audible late at night and get a great sound, this is it.

The only limitation of this amp (considering its purpose in life) is that you can't get delay and reverb at the same time. Personally, I like a lot of delay and a bit of reverb, but it's one or the other. Similarly, chorus, flange, phase and tremolo are mutually exclusive.

That aside, it's got enough power for the bedroom - you're not going to take this on stage, are you?

I use it with all my guitars - from Telecaster to Jem, 335, Strat and LP in between, whatever I feel like playing sounds sweet through this.

It's very quiet (on all counts) being a 2W solid state amp :-) It has a few amp sims, so you'll probably find something to your taste. Personally I like the Roland JC, which it does rather well (wonder why??). For me, that's the best sound for practice as you can hear every note. Or you have an AC30, Blackface Twin, Marshall stack, etc ...

Ermmm - not an anp you'd gig with ...

But it looks like it could take some serious abuse for its diminutive size.

It's pretty new to me, but it's Roland, and on past experience it will do the job.

Had loads of Roland/Boss kit, nothing ever broke, so I can't comment on customer service. Just hope this is as reliable as the other stuff.

Playing for 30+ years, have owned and still own lots of guitars, a Laney LC-30II amp (sweet) and a Behringer modelling amp (not bad).

I've tried a few practice amps, mainly little Fenders, but on the whole they've either been too loud for home practice (once you've turned them up enough to get a decent tone), or just crap. Exception would be the Laney LC15-R, which is definitely worth annoying the neighbours with.

I can honestly say this is the first practice amp I've ever had that does the trick for me. I don't mind using headphones when I'm recording, but sometimes I just have to hear the guitar through a speaker. You can play this turned up to 1 or 2 without disturbing anyone and it sounds awesome. If you need more volume, it's there up to a point - then you have to get your real amp out!

I don't think there is anything to match this for features at the price - I did look, but this is the one I wanted, and I love it.

It has some usable effects, but not enough adjustability with them. The range of tones is OK, but barely worth the money, compared with other modelling devices. I only use gainy distortion, thus the clean tones were irrelevant. it needs a loop and more tonal adjustment range.

I use a strat with an X2N in the bridge and a chopper in the neck. I play mostly high-gain neoclassical shred and bought this on a whim. Most dissapointing sounds, very cheap and digital for the current state of music technology. After hearing some clips on the net, I thought it sounded ok. After using it, I'm displeased. Just lots of bass-heavy crappiness. I was only able to get an acceptable sound by switching it to acoustic and running an Ibanez SM9 and Alesis microverb in through the front.

I would have given it a higher rating based on my previous experience with Boss/Roland, but those weren't made in China. No problems yet(knock on wood)

hope this is never going to be an issue, they don't have a toll-free line.

Been playing since 1981 and used all manner of equipment and "toys". If it were stolen, I'd buy anything else. I like it's size, but hate it's tone.

Brand new Microcube, presumably 2005/6. So many posts with the features before this, but I'll focus on the one drawback for me, namely the fact that the line-out jack cuts out the speaker when a jack is inserted - this is fine for use with Phones, but it would have been nice to have the ability to take a line out to the PA but still have a speaker active for monitoring. It's probably a simple mod, but as I've just bought this I don't want to start hacking it just yet!

Still, for a small practice combo this has an excellent feature set

Used with my Tele, my Parker Fly and my old Westone electric, primarily for practising (it's a practice amp!). Great range of sounds - I particularly like the Brit Combo and the Classic Stack. I could have lived without the JC-Clean and Acoustic settings, as Black Panel does it for me. Rectifier sounds great but not a cound that I'd use particularly often. With the volume right up the speaker can get a bit farty, particularly on some of the clean tones, but that's not unusual in this price range.

Built in effects are great too - usable without being outlandish. I could live without Flanger (maybe compression would have been a better option?) but the chorus, tremelo and phaser are excellent. Reverb/Delay are both very usable too.

Just bought it, but I've never had a piece of Roland/Boss gear fail on me

Never had to use

I've been playing for 24 years, and play regularly in a covers band - this little amp is one of the best practice amps I've tried. The flexibility of the modelling, plus the effects and aux-in make it an ideal packqage for home practice, plus it has enough poke for jams (albeit maybe drummerless) when required. If it was lost or stolen I'd likely buy another, although I'd be sure to check out some of the current alternatives.

I'd been sceptical about Roland amps in the past, my only previous experience having been on a JC120 complete with its horrible distortion, but this amp has changed my outlook - I'd certainly check out the Roland alternatives when I'm next looking into buying a gigging amp.

Purchased on 05, single channel amp with digital amp models and a nice selection of effects. Plenty of power for a bedroom jam.

I really only use the rectifier setting. While it sounds nothing like my rectifier, its fantastic for sitting in the living room and practicing at low volumes. The distortion is tight and fairly articulate. Notes are very clear and pinch harmonics are cake at low volumes.

Seems ok? I don't really plan on taking it out of the house though.

For a small practice amp with several options this is it! I checked out a few line 6 amps but they couldn't stand up to the small Roland.

Wonderful. Everything you could ever need. This amp is ideal for people who want something to practice with a reasonable volumes. I could well imagine myself gigging with this too, and not necessarily plugged into a PA either. Extremely punchy for its size. Everything they say about it is true. A little wonder.

Fabulous range of sounds. Everything is useable and will find its way into my playing.

Looks as solid as a rock.

Superb. Get it if you have a family, as the low output and headphone outlet mean you can play away at low/ no volume without disturbing others. In terms of value for money and sheer userfriendliness there's nothing else on the market to remotely compete with it. Superb price, superb spunds, superb amp and at last something I can play without fear of waking my young son up!

wont list em all but britcombo is my fave

cant believe some reviewers are knocking the effects-most of the the competition offer none.the reverb is usually the most disappointing effect on an amp this size, but not on the microcube.very useable and convincing.
i also play my blues harp through it and get very convincing honky sounds, without suffering from the usual dreaded feedback-way cool.

only had it 4 days, but its built like a marshall.nuf said.only one gripe-dont like the cheapie thin mains cable.

ok so far dudes

i own a liberty practice amp and a streetman practice amp-neither of these come close to the microcube at all.the streetman claims to be 15 watts, which i frankly doubt big time.it offers no effects and just about overdrives if you turn everything up to 10.it arrived with the vinyl covering hanging off at the edges.poor build quality.
the liberty offers good distortion and enough power , but its reverb is useless.the rechargeable battery in it is a poor performer-indeed, rendering its street use to almost nil.with its retro looks its the best looking of the bunch, but hey, beauty is skin deep.
microcube? buy one dude.

Bought brandnew out of the box,comes with a wall wart power supply, all the features have been done before: it's a little fella with lots of fun features, and it sounds excellent for the money! Its probably the finest budget practice amp around at this time. The phaser/flanger options are shitty, but the rest of the effects are quite useable, but they do sound very synthetic.

What amazes me is the build quality: solid and to be honest; flawless. Hats off to Roland for keeping up a damn fine quality control. Everything about this amp says quality, and you can pick it up for the price of 1 decent effect pedeal, marvelous!

I have a Squier '51, Squier Telecaster, and a Gibson '79 The Paul. The Roland isnt very responsive to different guitars/ pickup changes, sounds quite generic. But the variety of sounds is really cool, its just such good fun! LOud enough to annoy the neighbours. When cranked right up the speaker gives in and turnes to shit, but hey: its a 5 inch jobbie: what do you expect? For the money, its a 9 for sure.

Its a pain, these wall-wart power supplies. I would have paid more for a built- in power supply. As far as reliabilty goes: I can't really comment,I just pulled it out of the box, but it feels rock- solid. It comes with a year's warranty, so if it burns, just return it and get a new one. Roland delivers once again.

Can't comment on customer support, but I have a decent warranty from the shop.

Been playing for nearly 20 years, and have tons of experience. This is a very cool product, don't expext too much, but it has great rewards. The size of it is cool, the portability, battery powered option, its ideal for taking along to parties and suchlike. Get one while Roland still makes them!

This amp is so small that I use it as a "bedside amp". Actually it is standing on my bedside table right now. It's amazing how versatile such a little amp can be. It's good for any style from soft ballads to hard rock, thanks to what the manual refers to as COSM technology. COSM stands for Composite Object Sound Modeling, and it allows the amp to emulate such bigger amps as Roland's JC-120, Fender Twin Reverb, Vox AC-30TB, Marshall JMP 1987, and MESA/Boogie Rectifier. I think this particular feature is the best thing you can expect from a small practice amp like this. Other features that are worth mentioning are: the gain and the tone knobs, as well as the knob for such effects as chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo. It also has a delay/reverb knob.

I like to use my Yamaha SLG100S Silent Guitar with this amp. This makes the whole thing a very portable ensemble, by the way. The sound is great. I play jazz most of the time, and I can get a very decent warm tone by switching to the JC-120 amp type (see above), and by adding a little chorus effect.

This is an amp intended for home use mostly, so only occasionally is it exposed to risks. But I guess it is a very reliable, durable equipment.

Never needed to get it repaired.

I've been playing for 40 years. Besides the Yamaha guitar that I mentioned above, I have a Washburn J6. It sounds good with that guitar too. I'm really happy about this amp, and I am sure it was one of the best buys I've made.

I'm lazy ...go to roland's site and read :D

good things:
..All the models are very good :D
..The reverb is ok
..It can be loud
..Its so small, but gives punch and bass

bad things:
..Very very flat sound. It has no dynamics at all.
..Low end distortion (caused by the ported cab?).
..Th EQ sounds digital to me.
..The FX are useless... too exagerated.




For practicing, I preffer this amp than Pods or v-amps.

Seems very solid

never dealed

10 years playing guitar. Have owned many guitar amps... from crappy to heavenly biased tube heads.

This is a PRACTICE amp!! Cannot be compared with the big brothers.

I like it.
It's very easy to dial in good sounds. Every amp model is usable!
I has bad things (specially lack of dynamics), but at this price you cannot ask for more.

And it's so light and small!
Perfect to stay next to the sofa :)

This is an update to a previous review, same features as before.

Can only be played quitely without the speaker farting out. Works good if you run it through another speaker or cab, but the stock speaker blows. And there's no point trying to find a replacement 5 inch speaker, the Vox DA-5 runs $10-14 more than the Microcube and has a decent 6 1/2 inch speaker that doesn't love to fart out.

It always works, except for the crappy speaker.

Nice features, nice models, nice AA powered battery life, and sounds good when played quietly. At moderate volumes and up the speaker totally craps out.

Mine's an 05,I think. It's an amazing little magic box. I play a number of styles, from Travis-style picking thru Jazz/rock. You can get an amazing array of sounds and tones with this little amp. It has good power for a practice amp (remember, that's what this is), howver there are some inconsistancies with my unit.

I am using this to amplify my asian-made hollowbody jazz guitar. There is no noise or hum present at all. Here is a quirk that is present in my unit, it may not be typical of all: (Maybe future reviewers can confirm this or not). In some of the amp settings, the volume or output is much louder. For instance, in the 'acoustic' setting, I almost can't turn it high enough. The output is very low. When I dial around to the stack setting, or 'r-fier', the volume output is way off the chart, regardless of where my volume/gain knobs are. Maybe it's the nature of the beast, I'd have to compare to another unit to check.
At very low volume, the sound is beautiful. At moderate volume, things distort a bit, especially at the low end. It almost sounds like the speaker is being overdriven because when you play thru phones, the sound is gorgeous. After all, we're only dealing with a 5 1/2" speaker here. In settings like "black face' which is the simulated Fender Twin sound, your are presented with a fat, rich, chunky bass and the distortion is quite noticeable thru the speaker even at moderate or low volume. Maybe too much is being asked of this little speaker, or a more robust unit should be installed (stiffer cone, larger voice coil, more flexible surround, heavier magnet.) I have also noticed that the enclosure has a bass-reflex port visible thru the lower left front grille. After some experimentation, I found that the amp lost some of the muddy distortion when I sealed up the port. This renders the setup as an 'acoustic suspension' situation, where trapped air within the cabinet acts to cushion or dampen the cone travel of the speaker, mitigating some of the low end distortion. This worked out for me, and I'll leave it that way. Note that I am not attempting to play above a moderate living room practice volume. To sum up: thru the phones A+ Thru the speaker, B-

The little Roland is built like a tank. You could use it for a step-stool

Hope I don't have to go there

I almost bought the little Vox, but I have very limited space for equipment, and this one had great reviews. Very well made, easy to navigate, battery feature is relly cool. The selection of amp styles and effects makes it a little trasure chest of sound. Two concerns: The discrepencies in output as noted above for the different amp selections, and the low end distortion on the speaker. Overall, a very fine little package.

Been done already.

Superb for the size and money.
In fact it'd still be superb twice as big and twice as expensive.

Too new.

See above

Fantastic little amp.
Every guitarist should have one of these.

Just bought my Micro 2 weeks ago. After all the past 136 posts about the Micro, I'm not going to break down all the features it has. Here was the game plan...I wanted to open the box, tweak a few knobs, sound good and practice. I'm not going to spend valuable practice time reading manuals, learning to program effects etc. I just want to play and not have to set up my performing rig which is too big, loud, heavy and powerful for the house. I want to use one guitar cord to plug in. Plus, if I can run something with batteries so I'm not tied down to an outlet and its small enough for late night playing when the wife and kids are asleep, all the better. Bonus if it also has some effects to keep the ear interested...well this thing hits the ball over the wall and down the block!! Its far better than I could have imagined!!

Everything sounds great. I find the tone of each amp to be a convincing, usable version of the real thing. I can't believe it's only 2 watts. I really didn't think it could be used for anything but quiet home practice but I am now intending on using it for rehearsals, solo acoustic/electric work, and recording. Between miking the speaker or running the DI out, it should work great. I really like the chorus, the phaser , the delay and the reverb effects. The flanger and tremelo are fun to have but I could take them or leave them. The clean settings are nice although the Fender Blackface setting does distort the speaker when you play on the low E string. The JC setting is right on the money. I have a JC, so I would know. The Vox, Marshall and Mesa sounds are killer. I would have also liked a Fender Bassman 4x10 model but hey, this thing is only a hundred bucks! I have been using it mainly with my Musicman Axis Sport w/humbuckers and 5 way switching. I really like the Acoustic simulator too. I haven't tried the mic channel yet. The small size is great so I will also bring it to gigs and keep it in the car in case my main amp cuts out. The batteries do seem to last a long time, longer than the 20 hours Roland says they should last. It has alot of versatility so you won't get bored easily or quickly!!

Well, here's my only possible issue. If treated right, it should last just fine. The cabinet is made of solid wood and it has a real metal grate covering the speaker. I have never had problems with any Boss product that I own but I have had more than my share of problems with my Roland JC. Again, for 100 bucks, I'd probably just buy another Micro instead of trying to repair it or pay for shipping it out to Roland in California. After my issues with my JC, I swore I would never buy another Roland product but this thing is great. I have paid more for crummy sounding single effects. I don't see how you could go wrong with this amp.

Forget about this one...they suck as far as I'm concerned. Again, this rating is for my problematic JC. Hopefully the Micro is better than that.

Ok...it's like a pitbull puppy...cute as a button but will still rip your face off if provoked. Small but deceiving. By far, the best small, professional sounding, battery powered amp out there. Again, for around a C note, how can you go wrong? I've been playing guitar for 35 years, 25 of them professionally, so I won't say I really like something unless I really do. Check out the Roland website. There's a very good demo of the amp on there. It really does what they say it can. A 10 overall rating!!

Feature nicely covered below.

Purchased this cube last summer, the 1st thing I did, and I'm not recommending anyone doing this because could make your speaker very unhappy, I took the metallic protector from the front and replaced it with a cloth screen from an old Danelectro basket case amp. Makes a noticable difference, common sense would dictate it should, some of the speaker's output is bouncing off the grille. I do use this amp on the road literally in the summer I play outside on days that I gig at night but so far the clothe grille has offered enough protection. Another tip was mentioned a page or 2 below which is, an amp or any audio device with an A/C to D/C aadapter is at the mercy of the quality of the adapter. Luckily being a pack rat, I salvaged a nine volt acid battery that was either for a boat or an old er bike or scooter and this also makes a noticable difference, using the batteries that this amp is set up to handle internally is Ok but not for a long haul. A reviewer noted it was not suitable for playing with other small amps.. I believe it, but with a juiced up lead acid battery it could have made a difference. A disgruntled review below (12/16/)seemed to be agiatated with anyone who thought this amp was worthy of purchase, maybe his power supply was bad or couldn't handle what he wanted, and in fairness to all the reviewers he should take into consideration that its being reviewed as a 100$ amp, on the other hand out of my over stocked collection of guitars there are some that the amp is not friendly to, not particulary and type style of pup but likely the construction and Z of the ones that are not suited for this amp. As far as the amp modeling .. take the names given to each click with a grain of salt.. I don't think too many would expect this cube to sound like a Twin etc.. but it does change the type of distortion. Incidently, the guitar I use with this amp is an epiphone in the style of an SG gibson, 2 mystery black covered pickups which I bought as a outside guitar, it is very compatible with this amp, as a matter of fact I payed 129.00$ for the epi and its turned out to be my favorite guitar for gig or busking. For what this amp is out of the box I think its a solid 8, after taking the grille off and upping the juice, its a light weight 10 for my needs.

this cube was pushed of a chair by a lovely little child and hit tar putting scratches on the rugged plastic corners and once fell to the grass, both times no effect to the performance except for dirt that clung to the controlls.

no nothing about Roland

This is the best cheap amp I have played through, suiting my needs, but if possible bring you guitar to the music outlet and plug in and play.. there is really no other way to be sure

Don't know when mine was made...
The amp is absolutely versatile...
Practically every channel offers something good...
I INSIST IN HAVING A DEDICATED HEADPHONES OUT INSTEAD OF THE TUNNING FORK...
I use this practice amp as a "practice amp"...

Play several guitars (even laptops and such) but who cares. It is more important to know the pickups:

Gibson (Classic 57), DiMarzio (PAFPro, Fred, Twang King), Seymour Duncan (Pearly Gates, Tele stacked (STK-2?)& several systems from Yamaha, Fishman, Martin and so for electric-acoustic guitars...

Not noisy... It has somekind of intelligent noise gate...
It handles well all styles, just don't try to play with it at Los Angeles Colisseum (unless you have a good mic)...

Depending on the modelling, the clean channell distorts when pushed... Don't go beyond the middle if you are just practicing... REMEMBER IT IS "A PRACTICE AMP"...

Distortion is always brutal... ain't it?

Now, the reason why I re-write an opinion on this interesting breakthrough amp:

I SAID IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO HAVE A BIGGER SPEAKER (A 7 INCHER), BUT I'M SURE IT WOULD NOT BE THE SAME. ONE HAS TO CONSIDER WHAT THIS AMP IS MADE FOR: "PRACTICE", AND PRACTICE -EVEN IN THE DAYTIME- "MUST BE QUIET"... YOU MUST CONSIDER THE PEOPLE YOU LIVE WITH... YOU CAN BE A GREAT PLAYER (YOUR NAME HERE) BUT IT WILL ALWAYS BE BORING AND IRRITATING LISTENING TO SOMEONE PRACTICING FOR MORE THAN 30 MINUTES...

SO, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU HAVE FELT IT YOURSELF, BUT IT GOES MORE OR LESS LIKE THIS: "WHEN YOU ARE REHEARSING IN THE QUIETNESS OF THE NIGHT, WITH THE AMP NEAR TO YOU, AND YOU DIAL JUST THE "RIGHT TONE" AT A FAIRLY LOW VOLUME, YOU START FEELING THAT THE AMP DOES NOT EVEN EXIST, AND YOU FEEL YOURSELF CAPTURED "WITHIN" THE TONE... YOU KNOW, THE "AURAL EXPERIENCE"...JUST LIKE YOUR FINGERS & THE GUITAR MADE THE WHOLE SOUND THING... THEN YOU REALIZE MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT HIGH OR LOW VOLUME OR EVEN "TONE", BUT ONLY BEAUTY, IMAGINATION, AND INSPIRATION...

FRIENDS! IT FEELS LIKE FLOATING... LIKE DYING IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY... SO, YOU DO NOT NEED MORE VOLUME OR A BIGGER SPEAKER... NOT AT ALL!!!

GUYS AT ROLAND: KUDOS FOREVER!!!

How could I know? Hope it will last forever...

Never dealt with ROLAND...

One year warranty...

Mexico City has no ROLAND authorized service center... Anyway it has 25 million people... May be someone is a fairly good electronics engineer...

Playing for 22 years or so...

I would buy it again with no hesitation...

I love the sound and size, and I wish it had a better headphone out instead of the tunning fork...

It can't be compared with the amps you find around in Mexico City... Anyway, I've hears about a 5 watter VOX amp with modelling... Sounds good... doesn't it?...

I wish it had a better guitar player connected thru every time I use it...

SOME GUYS SAY IT IS A TOY... WELL, WE "PLAY" MUSIC... DON'T WE?

Made in 2005, the MicroCube is by far the most versital practice amp I've owned. It can run on batteries or on AC adapter (Roland was nice enough to include the AC adapter). For it's 8-watts of power and 6" speaker, this little amp packs a huge punch! It has a single aux input (bypasses all signal processing) for a microphone or whatever else you want to plug in there. Headphone/Direct out. All the amp models are good and on the MicroCube we get models based on:

- Acoustic simulator
- Roland Jazz Chorus
- Fender Twin (Blackface)
- VOX AC30TB
- Marshall Stack (manual says it's based on a JTM45, me thinks not)
- Mesa Boogie Rectifier
- Tube mic simulator

Although not all the models around exactly like what they are based on, here they all sound distinct enough to be usable and provide for just about any style you would like. Effects include: Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Tremolo (only one selectable at a time), Digital delay and Digital reverb are provided. As you'd expect you have no tweaking available for any of these params, just level. It's designed to be simple and please with the defaults and it does that very well!

I playing with this using a Les Paul style guitar, Humbucker pickups... The sounds are very big for such a small package. While it's impossible to make a 6" speaker sound like a tube-driven Fender Twin or or Mesa stack, this little amp does an outstanding job giving you useable big amp sounds. I've never thought much of the COSM modeling (never paid much attention to it), but of course most guitarist know BOSS/Roland is king when it comes to quality singal processors, effects. Everyone else is judged by them it seems, so I should have paid more attention. I've compared these models to what I'm getting from my Line6 POD and I have to say I perfer the sound of the COSM models! While I can't do any deep editing here, that capability is much less important to me than just getting a good dry tone for recording and when I stripped away all effects, balanced out the EQ and just recorded a dry VOX AC30 and Blackface models sounds then compared them to my POD's output I think Roland's COSM modeling technology may be the very best I've heard (makes me want to check out some of their higher-end product or plug-ins).

I've gone from the Headphone output into a PA system and it sounded great! I've also recorded with it using the headphone out direct into the board, sounds great!

It's built tough, metal grill, hard plastic casing, closed back. 100% solid state and it weighs less than 5 lbs, it's tough.

The produce manual is excellent. Roland support has been very helpful in the past, never contacted them on this product.

I went looking for the perfect practice amp... I wanted something I could take in a hotel room me and jam with, something that could accomodate a lot of different styles. I wanted something I could run into a PA system and play with without the sound coming apart when amplified (e.g. too digital mush sounding.. if you've played with amp models much, you know what I'm talking about). In both areas this little cube has really shined. It's like a swiss army knife of amps.. There's a reason why these little guys are hard to find... If you play one you'll have to buy one and if you do you'll be glad you did!

2 watts, battery powered, a handful of amp simulations and effects, all sound pretty good. 5 inch speaker, metal grille, headphone jack, 7 pounds, carrying strap, tuning fork tuner, very solid construction.

Fender Strat and Tele, very versatile, variety of styles/tones available, quiet, speaker will distort if cranked too hard. Pretty good clean sound and really nifty Mesa Boogie Rectifier simulation.

No problems to date, and I haven't had to change the batteries yet (7 months and counting).

Great practice amp, and bar none the best battery powered amp on the market. Everyone needs one of these or a Vox DA-5.

I usually use tube amps when playing, normally a Fender Deluxe Reverb or a Super Reverb, becuase solid states have never really cut it for me, but this ones different. As soon as I played trew this amp, I knew it was a a must-have. The effects aren't as great as a load of stomp box's, or a $250 multi-efffects pedal, but hey, it has 6 effects and 6 amp models, and I think it's worth every penny. As for the amp models, I prefer the black face(because of my amp taste) but the brit combo isn't bad either. The digital tuning fork is perfect when its just you a guitar and this amp. What's great about this amp is it's perfect for practicing. It has a headphone jack, and a line-in jack-actually two(one 1/4 inch and one 1/8 inch) so you can plug your cd player or ipod or whatever right in. Deffenitly a 10!

With a noisy guitar you will deffenitly get a noisy sound out of this amp. When I plug my strat copy in, you can really tell, but if i plug my 1993 Gibson Nighthawk in, it's beutiful. I havn't really tried the mic setting becuase I've never used a mic threw it, but seems clear enough to use if you have to. What's also great is that the amp doubles as a bass practice amp, too. If you just put the amp either on acoustic or JC clean, your good to go on bass, also. As far as tone, if you just tweek it to your standards, you can pretty much get any sound you want.

I'll let you in on a secret. I've dropped this thing. A lot. Not once has it over heated, short circuted, or just crapped out on me. It has a very dourable hard plastic cover and metal grill, so it's pretty much a tank of an amp. If your gunna use battaries, don't expect a lot. you can last a while on them, but if I usually use the AC adapter that came with it, when practicing.

I've played threw Rolands before and know the quality. This amp is no different. Ive never had to call or email customer support, and I'm doubting I ever will.

Deffenitly worth it. I was selling an Epiphone Shereton, A Double neck Danelectro, and an old Hallow body Jazz Harmony at a guitar trade show one time, and I had the Roland out there so people could play threw something to see how they sounded. People would come up to me and ask how much the amp was, not the guitars! For about $100, and you need a practice amp, this is the real deal!

Battery operated amp with Roland's COSM modeling feature. Emulates the following amp sounds: Fender Blackface, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Roland JC, plus an acoustic amp and mic pre model. Basic controls are tone, gain, volume. Also includes built-in effects: chorus, flanger, tremolo, phaser (one knob), and delay & reverb (a second knob). Built-in "tuning fork"feature.

It has a regular guitar input on the top, plus an aux input on the back (1/4") and a line out/headphone jack (1/4"). Runs on 6 AA batteries or a supplied A/C adapter. It really packs a ton of features for such a small package.

I bought this as a portable practice amp tha go anywhere in the house, and which is also perfect for late night noodling. Given the limitations of a 5" speaker, this amp does an absolutely incredible job of emulating the modeled amps. I mostly use a Strat into the Fender Blackface setting, and I'm amazed how good it sounds (I play a Fender Twin Reverb normally, and while this obviously doesn't mimic that amp's overall presence, it sounds awfully Fender-ish on the Blackface setting). I was using a Pignose Hog 20, but this amp puts the Pignose to shame.

Looks well built, and I've always found Roland stuff to be very reliable.

I've always gotten good service from Roland. They have a helpful website. I've never had to use their live tech support for anything, though.

I've been playing over 30 years and have a ton of gear, including: EJ Strat, SRV Strat, Strat Plus, Gretsch 6118, Epi SG, Fender Twin Reverb 50th Anniversary, Tech 21 Trademark 60, Trace Elliot Velocette, two Line 6 DuoVerbs, etc.

This a very commendable piece of equipment for its intended purpose, and if something happened to it, I'd get another.

This little amp is amazing... (optional) battery powered, line input, the effects that count (tremolo, phaser, flanger, reverb). Good amp models, etc... The competiton doesn't compare. I was looking at the ZOOM modeling amps, they cost more! Rolands technology is superior, COSM models sound great...

I'm using it with Humbuckers.... The amp models are based on (this is from the owners manual): Roland Jazz Chorus (JC-120), Fender Twinreverb BlackFace, Vox AC-30, Marshall JMP1987, MESA/Boogie Rectifier. You can get a lot of famous tones... Here are some patches/settings to try out when you preview this little guy in the store... You have to use your imagination a little... and adjust the tone on the amp accordingly depending on what kind of guitar you're using...

DREAM THEATER - John Petrucci
TONE - 45%, EFX - OFF, DELAY - 50%, GAIN - 10, MODEL - R-FIER

NICKELBACK - Chad Kroger
TONE - 55%, EFX - OFF, REVERB - 50%, GAIN - 4, MODEL - R-FIER

CREME - Eric Clapton
TONE - 55%, EFX - OFF, REVERB - 50%, GAIN - 8, MODEL - BRIT COMBO

JIMI HENDRIX - Wind Cries Marry
TONE - 45%, EFX - OFF, REVERB - 50%, GAIN - 3, MODEL - CLASSIC STACK

ZAKK WYLDE
TONE - 50%, EFX - CHORUS 2 - DELAY - 50%, GAIN - 10, MODEL - CLASSIC STACK

SRV
TONE - 75%, EFX - OFF, REVERB - 60%, GAIN - 6.5, MODEL - BLACKFACE

It's build well... you can drop it and it won't break.

Fantastic, buy one...

This amp was made in 2005. It's a little swiss army knife... For about $125 you get...

An 8-watt battery powered amp (AC adapter included for when you want to plug-in). A handful of great models (the ones that matter), Acoustic simulator, Jazz Chorus, Fender BlackFace (for blues), Bristish Stack (sounds like they are shooting for a modern Marshall JCM model here), "Vintage Stack" (I'd guess this is trying to model a vintage 100-watt Marshall head, like those made popular by Clapton and Hendrix in the 60's-70's), Rectifer is obviously Mesa Boogie model... Amp models are fun toys and for this small package these sound fantastic.... Of course they are using the Roland/BOSS COSM modeling technology which is good stuff.

Aside from the amp models there are some great effects packed in, selectable Digital Delay and Reverb which can be combined with one of the following effects: Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo. Gain and Volume controls are provided. There is no EQ, just a single tone knob.

On the back side we have Phones/Line out which you can use to run into a PA system and actually get a reasonable tone (think of it as a POD with less features and a built-in speaker)

There is a Line input which you can run a rhythm machine into, or get a small mixer and run your Microphone, Rhythm machine, Keyboards, etc.. Turn your MicroCube into a Micro PA.

Coming through the speaker it's amazing what a tight little punch Roland has managed to squeeze in. It sounds amazing for what it is. When you plug in with earphones or run out to a PA system it sounds amazing for the price....

Of course there are some models that sound better than others. I've yet to hear a Blackface model that really worked all that well and the acoustic simulator is only tolerable, but for this price those things can be overlooked.

Roland customer support is great.

This little amp sets a new standard in the portable amp (i.e. battery powered) category! If you're looking for a little amp you can take around that's battery powered for $50-$70 you could buy a Pignose, one of those little belt-clip Marshall or Dean Markley gimicks (there are a few choices there, they all stocking stuffer novelities) with these type of amps you get little or no effects and they are not ment to be taken too seriously.

With the MicroCube, Roland has released a new breed of portable amp that is more than just an amp. It's something you can use as a substitute for your Line6 POD if you left it at home, but then you could also take it to family picnics and entertain everyone on battery power. Hands down the coolest guitar gadget I've seen in a long while, play one and you'll probably have to buy one.

made in 2005
Features already well covered in previous reviews

Used with cheapo aria start copy. Made me smile the 1st time i played it and is still making me smile. I don`t have the volume that loud as its used for home practise and guitar class lessons only, but for 2 watts- its Plenty loud- people were asking me if i was sure it was only 2 watts due to the great noise this throws out.
Love the chorus and reverb effects
Acoustic and J.C with chorus on sound cool.
Black panel, combo, stack and r-fier are great with loads of sound options.
Compared to my marshal mg 15cd this blows it away.

Built like a reall Brick but still new so will not rate at this time

N/A

Just a beginner really, but have checked out hundreds of reviews for various products and have never written a review about anything before and distrust reviewers who go over the top and give 10`s, However I am so pleased with the micro cube that i felt i had to post this.

Used to own a little fender champ valve but this is the very, very impressive- A classic in the making.
Maybe a bit pricey compared to other small portable practise amps but it is worth every penny.
Just Buy It!

I'VE READ FOR THREE HOURS ABOUT THEM & WE ALL KNOW THEM BY NOW... THE FORK TUNER SHOULD NOT EXIST AND I AGREE IN HAVING A BETTER EQ INSTEAD "OR" (THIS COUL BE VERY INTERESTING FOR GUYS LIKE MY SELF WHO JUST CARE ABOUT TONE & VOLUME) "A DEDICATED GOOD QUALITY HEADPHONE OUT"... COME ON! IT'S A PRACTICE AMP AND YOU WILL WANT TO GET SERIOUS WITH HIGH GAIN MODELS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! THE MANY COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE POOR QUALITY REC/OUT ARE NOT FAIR. AS LONG AS I KNOW "EVERY REC OUT IN AN AMP MODELER SOUNDS LIKE SHIT... SEEMS IT HAS TO BE LIKE THAT... AND - THEN AGAIN - MANY REVIEWERS TALK ABOUT HOW BEATIFUL THE TONE CAN BE WHEN USING IT WITH PA SYSTEMS AND OTHER AMPLIFIERS... THAT'S WHY I ASK FOR A DEDICATED HEADPHONE OUT...

LET'S JUST SAY I PLAY SINGLE COIL, HUMBUCKER,PIEZO AND MICROPHONE EQUIPPED AXES. COME ON! WHO CARES WHAT I PLAY WITH! THIS LITTLE THING WORKS QUITE WELL WITH ALL OF THEM, AND I'M PRETTY SORRY FOR ALL THESE GUYS, LIKE THE ONE FROM THE BEATIFUL PORTUGAL, WHO DECLARE THIS AMP SUCKS IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. I THINK HE IS A VICTIM OF MISCONCEPTION HERE... AS OTHER OLD FOLK SAID "YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU NEED AND HOW TO USE IT"... THIS IS A LITTLE PRACTICE AMP. ANYWAY I CANT HELP TO IMAGINE HOW IT WOULD SOUND WITH A 7 INCHES SPEAKER (LIKE THE BULLDOG ONE USED IN THE VOX PF 10 THAT REALLY HANDLES THE BASS OF MY HUMBUCKERS) THAT MIGHT BE THE AMP THIS GUY AND OTHERS ARE LOOKING FOR, BUT, HEY, THOSE ARE PERFORMANCE AMPLIFIERS (STREET PERFOMANCE OF COURSE)AND NOT "PRACTICE AMP"... TO BEGIN WITH, I THINK A GOOD PRACTICE AMP COULD NOT HAVE A SPEAKER AT ALL... AGAIN, "JUST GOOD HEADPHONES OUTLET"...

I HAVE READ ALL THESE COMMENTS AND NOBODY HAS TALKED ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF USING EFFECT PEDALS (OR NO PEDALS)BEFORE THE MICROCUBE. I SUPPOSE COSM MODELING AS A DIGITAL FACT MUST NOT BE OVERDRIVEN BY NOTHING BEFORE, CAUSE IT CHANGES THE WHOLE ALGORYTHM FOR EACH SIMULATION... I REALLY DON'T KNOW... I TRIED A COUPLE OF GADGETS BEFORE THE MICROCUBE AND THEY DID NOT SOUND BAD BUT THEY DID DESTROY THE CHARACTERISTIC "FEEL" OF THE MODELS... MAY BE SOME "DIGITAL" COMPRESSION AND EQ COULD HELP THOSE GUYS FIGHTING WITH THE BASS FREQUENCY PROBLEMS... WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF U SET A CLEAN TUBE PREAMP (ART MP OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT) BEFORE OR AFTER THE MICROCUBE? CAN ANYBODY GIVE ME A HINT IN THESE DOUBTS?... I THINK A NICE TUBE COULD GO VERY WELL "AFTER" THE MODELLING, JUST AS A DIRECT BOX, IN ORDER TO SOFTEN THE REC/OUT... WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?...

WELL, WHO KNOWS? HOW CAN U KNOW SUCH A THING... JUST BECAUSE ROLAND IS PRESTIGIOUS? COME ON!

I LIVE IN MEXICO CITY & THIS IS A 25 MILLION PEOPLE JUNGLE WHERE THERE ARE NO ROLAND DEALERS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT... SO I WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE BEST AND RELY IN THE LOCAL TECHNICIANS (MMMHH...)

I HAVE HAD THESE FOR A FEW WEEKS NOW AND I AM VERY PLEASED SO FAR. I DO NOT EVEN THINK IN THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING DONE A MISTAKE BUYING THIS... LIKE 12 YEARS AGO, WHEN I PAYED AROUND 800 USD FOR A DIGITECH LEGEND 21 (WHICH IS NOT THAT BAD EITHER, BUT PROCESSOR WERE SO ARCAIC AND EXPENSIVE AT THE TIME... THE NEW DIGITECH MULTIDISTORTION PEDAL COSTS MORE THAN 300 DOLLARS... AGAIN: COME ON! IT'S A DAMN BARGAIN! I WISH IT EXISTED 25 YEARS AGO AS MANY HAVE SAID BEFORE... LAST BUT NOT LEAST, IT IS REALLY FUNNY (YEP, SORRY GUYS BUT IT'S TRUE)TO READ RTHE REVIEWS FROM GUYS WHO COMPLAINT THAT MUCH FOR HAVING BOUGHT SUCH A NICE AND RIDICUOSLY PRICED PIECE OF FINE GEAR...

THE MICROCUBE IS NOT A TOY... THE GUYS WHO SAY IT ARE HAVING HEAVY DRUGS FOR THE FLU OR SOMETHING... THANKS ROLAND...

I bought two of these little wonders about 18 months ago, one for my son who was just starting out and one for myself because I liked it so much in the shop. As features go, they are listed below, everything is simple, it is a practice amp. The only 3 things that are missing is chanel switching, speaker out and mix control for the effects. In light of the purpose of this amp these are not great things to be missed but it would have been nice.
My local tech made me a speaker out and I play it now over 2x12 boogie rectifier cab. Big sound!!!!

Sounds fantastic, no noise, great tube feel. Yesterday I was out buying a new guitar with my son who is a real metal boy. His dream amp always has been a Randall. When whe started trying out guitars his first choice was a big Randall solid state RH100 head with a 4x12 cab. When he found the guitar of his choice he tried it out on the microcube and we were both impressed how this little wonder beat the big Randall in sound (we're not talking volume here).
You can go from real nice vintage clean to great crunch sounds and go big heavy metal with the microcube.
Are there downsides: yes, if you put the volume past 12 the little speaker craps out. However for practice use this is more than loud enough. If you want volume buy the cube 60 (this one is louder than hell and will put many head cab combo's to shame.

It is well made, the only thing that has broken down is one knob that could easely be glued together again. It came of and by accident I stepped on it, otherwise it would not have been broken.

Don't no, there has never been a reason to deal with Roland over this product. I once had a Boss pedal (same company) that didn't work from the word go and got a new one instantly.
But were talking microcube here so I can't rate this catagory since there has been no reason to contact them.

I retired my soldano over it: Am I crazy?!! Hell no! I dare to admit that this thing smokes. I owned a Mesa Dual Rectifier, got rid of it because I thought it was to dark, muffled sounding no matter what tubes I used. The microcube has a better sounding rectifier sound than the original one. I am completely convinced of the quality of sound of this little amp.

For the purposes of a training, beginners or pratice amp, there are ample features (more than any other amp in it's class in fact), to spend hours of good practice time on. Please be reminded that this is a 2 Watt unit, don't expect blow away stadiums with sound (although the record out feature may be used to patch into a board, and then...your imagination can take over).

The one thing I like about all the features is that they are certified Boss effects. Taking advantage of the technology Boss has in guitar effects means that the effects are well thought out and very responsive. With this, Roland went to the hub of effects innovation to load this unit up with Chorus, Phlanger, Phaser and Tremolo on one dial, and very ingeniously a second dial for Reverb and Delay...In this way can run 2 lines of effects simultaneously...That's without factoring in the over drives available.

6 amp modelling settings, and one mic input.

I bought this amp mainly for my son who is starting out. This is a great way for juniors to learn how to use and appreciate different effects to guitar sounds...and with Boss quality, I can trust the effects to be beefy.

The only bone I have with this unit is in the back, where a 1/8 jack is supplid for the power adaptor. I just wish that they used a figure 8 or something a little more substantial.

Other than that it's a winner...

Very nice. Please don;t think you're going to blast the neighbours out of existence or blow away stadiums.

Boss effects are genuine, and do not strip the underlying guitar tone.

I've used a Les Paul, Strat and they both sound amazing.

Hands down the best sound in it's class.

I've tried (in order or quality) Orange, Vox, Marshall, Peavey, all in the same Power class and this one is the winner.

Have had no problems with it.

Good always.

A wonderful introduction into the posibilities of electric playing

Bought fall '04. Features as previously mentioned.

I've used this w/ Fender (sc), Gibson (hb), Guild/Fishman active, etc. Blackface setting especially 'farts out' badly at any appreciable volume (I'm talking quiet living room here, folks), even w/ sc's and very low gain and volume. (See other reviews re: same.)Seems to be combo of input overload, cabinet/chassis resonance, and preamp/amp distortion. Pretty ugly. That's the worst of it, most of the rest, fx, etc, is passable for what it is. Ext spkr jack would have been nice.

With sound like that I call it broken, right out of the box. I've had it a year, shoulda returned it, but for $125 wasn't worth the time and expense. Bought from DJM, 1 1/2 hours away. Wouldn't buy again from them but that's another story; a long one.

No experience

I've been in music 45 years playing, fixing, buying, and selling. I've used most everything over the years. I picked this up based on reviews much more flattering than mine, and compact size. I'd replace this with a modeling amp just a tad bigger.

I wanted a practice amp I could throw in the car and not worry about.

This is it!!


It has a few effects and a few different amp tones. The great thing is that almost every setting is useable and you don't get bogged down with menus and options.

I use this amp with a mid 80's MIJ Tele with US Fender Vintage pickups, a Gibson Les Paul Studio and a Fender Smith Strat.

All of the guitars sound individual and retain their inherent characteristics through this amp.

The amp has no hiss and the quality of tone is WAY bigger than you'd expect from the size of the speaker.

The tones I use most are the "JC clean model" and "Brit Combo". The modulation effects are spot on as are the reverb and delays.

No fuss just the sounds you want.

It seems very reliable....it certainly is built well.

N/A

I had a Cube 30 before this and although I was very pleased with the sound of it, it was just a little too big for me to carry it around the house with me (plus it didn't run on batteries).

This Microcube has the same effects and sounds to me identical.


I LOVE THIS AMP!!!

The microcube, your average practice amp on NOS. Not you have a bedroom amps that doesnt have to be real loud to sound good, it comes with effects, which most practice amps dont. However the eq is a bit limited because there is only one knob for high and lows. There are settings for acoustic sim, for those of you that plays at churches that hates rock music, then an electric clean for your guns n roses "Paradise City" intro, and you got the Black panel which is slightly distorted, and then the combo and classic/R-fier for your heavy metal sound for those of you that plays Christian rock at a church (try Stryper for a change...). This unit takes batteries so you can do it like Dewey Finn in "School of Rock" where he straps a mini amp to his leg.

This amp has too much presence. There are no adjustments for presence so this thing sounds almost synthetic. However we're talking about a practice amp, and a damm good one too. Most other practice amp doesnt have built in effects and things like that. The sounds are good, its just that it seems to lack the feel of a real amp.

I have never tried to throw this thing out of a window so I cant comment on how reliable it is. Im sure most solid states are quite shock resistant as long as they were properly made.

never dealt with them

Good portable practice amp for those that lives in small places or crowded places where its easy to wake up neighbors... If lost I'd go ahead and buy some marshall 30w amp or save up for an inexpensive tube...

Fantastic. Trully amazing. There's a life time supply of tones on offer here.

Let me start with the channels:
Acoustic= acoustic simulator
JC clean= super clean tone that can sound funky (Red Hot Chillis Peppers)
Black Face= Fender amp tone, treble and bass rich, very clean (Nirvana- teen spirit intro sound)
Brit combo= Mid-rangy tone that can scream and wail (Queen- Bryan May)
Classic stack= Marshall ballsy tone, crunchy and bluesy (AC/DC)
Rectify= Metal distortion sound great for lead and rythmn (Metallica)
Mic= slightly distorted punk soundind (The Clash)

The effects are chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremelo. There's also reverb and delay. All of these are pure quality digital effects and as good as any Boss pedal.

You play guitar and there is a sound on here for you. It is loud enough for a house easy.

The battery's last for ages, brilliant.
Great build quality.
I've turned this up full and it still works fine.

Not needed.

The best practice/house amp in the world. It does everything you want from an amp and more. Well worth double the price. Get one now if you are after a solid, reliable, versitile, great sounding practice amp.

I'm rating this pretty high in features because as a PRACTICE AMP it's the best I've played. It has a lot of onboard effects that are pretty usable. The amp models arent half bad either and the distortion is actually pretty good. Normally gain stages on these sort of amps just don't hold up well at all but I was actually VERY surprised when I flipped it on and tried it out.

You only get a broad EQ sweep and don't have control over individual bass, mids, and highs. You only have a sweeping control for the effects too. And of course, gain and volume knobs.

The amp models include: Acoustic, JC Clean, Black Face, Brit Combo, Classic Stack, R-Fier, and Mic.

Also has a neat little tuning fork button that when you hit it gives you an A 440 (there are two other settings).

The fact you can run it off of batteries is great too!

I'm giving it a 10. If you are in need of a small practice amp that isn't completely lifeless this is a FANTASTIC amp, but keep in mind it's a small solid state amplifier. So I am rating it on the fact that as a practice amp it sounds great, but don't expect it to hold up to any sort of professional gear.

The reviewer that stated the amp "farts loudly on the low-e" must have a faulty cube because I'm not getting the same effect through mine.

Cleans aren't too bad. Acoustic is usable with a single coil pickup. I was really surprised at the R-Fier distortion setting. I expected something weak here but this setting has a lot of power to it considering what its coming from. It holds up very well for practicing and playing along to CDs.

The only thing I don't like (but doesn't really bother me so it doesnt effect the rating) is that I had to re-EQ it on each of the amp models to get a sound I like. Every channel seemed to favor a different setting on the EQ, Gain, and Volume knobs... so if you like switching channels a lot this amp will probably annoy you.

The effects sound great and are very usable. The delay is surprisingly good and the chorus was nice and deep. You also have the trippy effects with Flanger and Phaser. I didn't like the tremelo effect, but thats just me.

Built like a rock. Speaker is covered in a metal grating and it has big plastic guards screwed on to the corners. Knobs are recessed into the top. I've already dropped it from about 3 feet up onto concrete and it works fine. Not a scratch on it either.

N/A

I am a guitar instructor that travels to my students' homes, so I needed something portable and lightweight that I wouldn't mind dragging all over the place. I purchased the amp really because of its size and portablity. I wasn't too concerned about how well it sounded, but I am glad I lucked out and got this great sounding little amp, as it can compete with some of the bigger setups my students own.

I also needed a good practice amp. I recently got rid of my Fender amp for a much larger and more professional set up (Mesa Rectifier) and with a big 4x12 cabinet this isn't something I can practice with in my apartment.

I needed a good, portable practice amp and this amp accomplished what I need in spades. Great buy!

The sounds range from o.k. to horrible. The clean sounds fart loudly when you hit the low E. You have to keep it whisper quiet to prevent it from buzzing and quivering. Not good. If you need an amp that you can play at 3am and carry with ya from room to room this might be your amp! Otherwise forget it. I am shocked at the 10's for this category. I will consider this next time I want some info on a new product. Too bad its not a more reliable source of product info. Anyway, I will rate the sounds at 7 for 3 or below on the amps volume, and 2 for anything higher. Average it to a generous 4.

Been playing for 16 years and own a bunch of gear and various amps, some cheap peavey solid states to fender tube amps and the pvs sound way better than this thing. I tried to like it and may have kept it for a goof but when the thing couldnt handle the low E on a clean sound even with vol low it had to go back! Hope this helps save you some time and money

Read about the micro cube on several websites. I always had the wish, to get a small but good amp for different things: sing and speak over it with a microphone, and play guitar. When I read, what the amp ist able to do, (a variety of effekts) I bought one over ebay. Now I have it, and I can tell, what they wrote in internet is true. Size is liker a car battery, it finds a place in the smallest
room. Its well built, its solid, good look. The knobs are comfortable to use, working exact. Yes ist a versatile amp. You can
create a lot of sounds, if you take a little time. I use this amp mostly at home. Its loud enough, its good for a good neighbourship,
which is important for me. I wish, I could adjust the strength of
the effects, this is the only thing I would like to change. But if you look at the price, its OK without.

I-m playing a standard american strat built 1989. For an amp oft this
small size the sound is good. No question, the low frequencies are
missin, you should not compare the micro cube with a vox pathfinder 15, or a pf 10. (I have theese amps and like them very much) They have bigger speakers, and a higher output. The micro cube brings out a middle to high range of frequencies, in an astonishing quality for a two watt amp. The amp is not noisy. Really not. Well solved, Roland! The distortet sounds reach from lightly crunchy to heavy distortion. You can adjust that very good, mostly even with the volume knob of your guitar!)What I like is the effect section. I you play rythm guitar, accompanying songs, the flanger effect comes wonderful jazzy. I like the tremolo, which is not so impressive like
my vox pf 15 tremolo, but its absolutely useful. I like the delay effect, very good! Its exactly what I alway wanted. I-ll keep this
little amp, I love it for what it is, not always thinkin about what it could be. Roland works on the next generation of amps. I-m shure.
Lets wait and see. For this size and this speaker the sound ist
topp!!

very good.

never dealt with them

Its a wonderful little construction. No dount: Sometimes I think about buying the cube 30 for a louder stronger sound. But this is
not really necessary. the 30 would be too loud for my room. The
micro cube is just right, bringing me fine sounds, when i sit there,
playin my strat. I play rock, I play folk and country, a little jazz,
and this good soundin companion helps me to find my music. I use it
with batteries, that makes me free in movement. In the next days I will receive a microphone, may be I-ll write again, how the amp sounds with it.

this is already written before.
i would have liked a tuner....

the sounds it produces are okay, not as wonderful as many others write in my opinion. the "blackface" is very much useless and does nothing but farting around when it should twang. the ac30 is okay and fairly loud. the marshall is kind of alright and the mesa is actually pretty nice. you can tweak around and get pretty reasonable sound for jamming along with records. the effects are quite usable. nice is the tremolo addition. but be aware: this amp does not sound at all like a real tube-amp!

looks raeely sturdy. weak point is the outboard electric power supply.

no idea

this is a pretty nice home-practice amp. the good thing is: you have to unpack only one cable to get a bunch of sounds. and it is very nice to carry it around on a bicycle. i like the amp but i am not at all totally blown away like some other players that put reviews in here. i own a kustom tube 12 a with some mods, and a fender blues junior in a custom chassis with a celestion vintage 30 speaker. the little roland does sound okay when played via its own speaker. it sounds nort really good thru other amps and thru headphones. and it is not good for recording stright into a computer. it looks like a do ikt all wonder, but that is not really true, unless you are satified with poor results. but for homejammin it is good, specially with the effects.

Great features - lots of cool amp models using roland's cosm simulations. includes reverb/delay and chorus/flange/phaser/trem. Gain, volume & tone. I'd say there are a lot of features for the $$

I've been using this amp for about 6 months - I try and wait at least that long to write a review.
This amp sounds absolutely excellent so long as you keep the volume fairly low. Another reviewer wrote that it is fine from 4 and under and I would say that is correct.
I took it to practise with a friend (just two guitars) and I made a big mistake taking it. By itself, it sounds really warm and full - again at low volume. Playing with someone else using a Fender champ, and suddenly my Micro sounded really really thin and had no umph at all. AND, by turning it up, it seems that I have now damaged either the speaker or the circuit because even at low volume certain bass frequencies break up to an unlistenable degree.
So, the lesson here - use it for a solo practise amp and never turn it up beyond 1/2 way and you'll be happy. I am offering my rating based on that scenario.

Because of the above mentioned problem which has yet to be resolved, I think the reliability is of some concern. But all the knobs feel sturdy and the jack is good and tight. It would have been better if the knobs sat just a little below the recessed edge of the top - as it is, they are just a hair above which leaves them susceptible to damage - but not bad at all.

Use it as a solo pracise amp and it's a 10 and I highly recommend. If you are looking for it to be a bit more multi-purpose to bring to a friend's house to jam (even if just a guitar duo or quiet practise) and it's the wrong amp.

Seems pretty good for the price/size.....effects all sound pretty good.

Sounds good enough for practice....maybe even try recording with it....

Only had couple of days

Haven't needed them

Been playing for a while and I was just looking for a little practice amp that I can take with me wherever I go...vacation, hanging out, top of a mountain etc..something that didn't need to be plugged in or need to carry around stomp boxes or floor processor. I think that this isn't a bad little amp for what i want it to do. Its small enough (i think) to take on your carry on when flying too...the only real complaint that I have about it is that I wish the power button was on the top of it and not the back....come to think of it all of the controls/aux input should be on the top....oh yeah, the "micro cube" sticker on the front grill looks cheap, stupid and detracts from the amp....I peeled it off....I suggest you do the same!

My little pignose went "toast" .. I went to replace it and the shop that once carried Pig has discontinued in favor of the Micro-Cube. The musician below does have a valid point about the Pignose by comparison but I did have good luck with the pignose miking it for gigs, it suited nicely what my deal is which is early electric.. from earliest Muddy up and including Early B.B. King, but with that said, this amp reminds me of a fool size amp that got shrunk leaving a fairly big and rich sound. Surprising rich tone or hollow distortion which is what I enjoyed about the pig but this takes sonics to a new level, but also gives the pig sound. (smallest)
If I was manufacturing this amp I would have put a handle of some sort or scoops on the side, but they have a shoulder strap which attaches on either side of the amp. has a rather generic ac/dc (9v) adapter but at least it comes with the cube. I use an acid battery from Rack Shack (12v) with 12-9 adapter (a quality adapter) wish these companies would just up the voltage to 12 volts so a pure 12 volt source could be used.. maybe I'm ignorant to the magic of 9 volts being the standard on most of these small amps but I don't know that there is any benifit. The power source is a big deal. The speaker moves around alot of air, I can feel it pushing through the switch cut outs.. Thats not a complaint just a fact, speaker moves a lot of air, and I would say in a fair quick manner which is good for tone which this has. Also the "amp modeling" reminds me of the Danelectro Daddy O' which also isn't bad but thats what it reminds me of. The effects are decent, for what I do, only the reverb and or some tremolo.. AND they are on 2 seperate controls, you can actually blend.. pretty handy.. the tuning tone is well thought out giving one the option of tuning on the money or flat/sharp, simple idea but for someone like me that plays in open tunings its a nice touch.

Great sounding little amp that sounds or can sound bigger than it looks. The cavity and speaker design must have been formulated.. It is no overstatement as others below have pointed out that this cube is a gooding sounding amp, even has bounce and swirl, its no tube amp, but I have have and still have many and this can nail an old relic with a tube rectifier and it almost sounds like it gets some sag. Reverb surprised me right away and the tremelo is not too far off from an old fender.. kinda. Very usable however mixed with a smidgen of reverb, I have to admit it is a big little bang for the buck. The distortion has wide variety from one end to the other. But make no mistake, this is a little amp, a cheap amp, but well made, well thought out and each guitar I own (many) actually sound like a different guitar with the personality I'm use to with a high end amp. Noise is according to pick-ups and surroundings but with no 1/4 inch stuck in it, its very quiet at volume.

Well made .. not thrill with adapter that comes with it but I don't use, and it could be I'm being petty. Its a great box, doesn't look or feel like a toy, which includes controlls.

Glad I got this amp instaed of pig but I'm also glad you can dial in the pig sound which I always found great for some things not so great for others, this amps covers all guitars of mine and material as well as a dobro with pup. Its about the size of a heavy duty car battery but weight is not an issue. Check it out, its one little package you'll be glad to show off..

The features on this amp are easily found in this forum as well as the Roland site.

First off I want to say that this is simply the best portable guitar amp in the world. Pignose was the standard but the Micro Cube makes the Pignose into a novelty item in comparison.

Features that could improve this already impressive amp would in some cases make it a different product with a different price point but so what?manufactures are always looking for more shelf space and why could there not be a Micro Cube ?Deluxe?

Here it goes:

2 channels with each channel containing ANY of the sounds that are already present in the one channel version. Foot switch able.

Built in MP3 player with a USB port to input practice/play along songs. Controls (Volume, song selection) would be right on the top with the rest of the controls.

A ?TAP? feature that many delay?s have which allows you to set the delay time to the beat of the song.

An upgraded tuner that shows the note and left and right arrows.

Change the power switch so that it is on the top and not so easily turned off nor so hard to find.

As the features for this ?First edition? Micro Cube does have nice features I would give it a 10 already. I just hope Roland can see that this amp has a lot a room to grow.

One feature that really is nice is that it is powered by 6 AA batteries. This amp does NOT eat the batteries. Put some Alkaline in it and they will last like the Eveready Bunny. If I played good enough I would set this amp up on the street and make some money.

This amp sound very good. Since I am not a professional player I really do not need a large amp. I used to think (and rightly so) that you needed a 10-20-30 watt amp to get a nice sound. This amp makes that a thing of the past. This amp is a tone monster and considering how small the speaker is this is a killer amp.

I use all of the amp models since they are all very good. I have never owned any of these amps so I do not know if they sound like the models that they are supposed to sound like?but they all sound fantastic.

I use the delay and Reverb only (set and forget) and have left the modulation stuff alone since I am a recovering knob-turner who needs to keep his hands on the guitar more.

The only sound that this amp will have a hard time with is low notes from a high volume humbucker. It does low notes pretty well at low volumes but understandably cannot do what an 8-10-12 inch speaker can do.

It looks to be constructed in a way that will stand up to use and some abuse. The inside circuitry looks clean and all loose wires are secured from bouncing around.

I have never contacted Roland for customer service so I do not know if it will be good or bad. I would think it is good but now-a-days there are big name companies that provide service that makes me wonder how they are still in business.

The best technical support is to build a good and reliable product and this amp appears to be just that.

I mostly play my Fender American made Telecaster installed with Fender Texas Tone custom Shop pickups and a 4-way pickup selector. I also play my Gretch Korean made Les Paul copy with Seymour Duncan JB/bridge and Jazz/neck wired for coil tapping and paralleling. I have been playing Blues and Rock off and on now for 30 years as a hobby.

If this amp were ever lost to theft or destruction I would get another as soon as I could (we are talking hours). If Roland went out of business I would grab up a couple of extras ASAP.

Try this amp out if you are looking for a really nice tone both for clean and distored and you want it to be at a low volume and/or portable.

2005, I needed an amp to practice at home without annoying the neighbours. I play blues, learning jazz and blues based rock.

Has just the right amount of power for it's purpose.

Play Les Paul Classic, Clapton Strat, Tele. Suits the style great. I have to say I was amazed when i turned it on and plugged it in. Much more depth than I expected and fills a small roome to a nice level for home practice. The variety is good, only use one or two of the amp models, but they do it for me! Fantastice!

I expect so!

Never used it. 12 month warranty.

Been playing a while, have a fender blues junior and marshall 30dfx, this is the defacto for home practice unless I know my neighbours are away!

Love the quality of tone for such a small unit. Go out and buy one, it is money well spent! Just cannot criticise for size and cost.

This is a new 2005 amp. Very versatile. I play blues, rock and whatever fits my fancy at the moment. I wish it had two channels but for the money...what the hell. You can read the features in the other reviews. I can't believe the power this little unit has.

I was looking for small amp I could bring to work and practice with. (I work nights and this isn't a problem) It's a great job. I found good reviews on this site and Harmony's forums. The price was right at $125. delivered from Zzound. Everyone here at work and anyone I've shown it too wants one.

I have a American Standard Tele, A mini Strat (Squire), Stellar Mercury 004 (with lots of work done to it) and a couple others I have tried with this amp.

It can be a bit to set up with the archtop hollow body but it truly sounds great with all the guitars. The clean channel sounds excellent with the Tele and the little Strat. a little muddy (maybe not the word I'm looking for) with the archtop. I'm still experimenting with settings but most of the time I'm running the guitar volume full bore and adjusting the volume on the amp.

Distortion is great with all the guitars.

Can't really say on reliability, only had it a couple weeks.

Don't know

Overall I think it's one of my best buys. I've been playing a long time. If lost or stolen, I'd get another. I love it's size, It's sound, the fact that it will run on batteries. There's nothing to hate. I compared it to Pignose. They aren't in the same ball park. 2 channels would be nice.

Do you know what year the amp was made in?
2005

Is the amp versatile enough for you and the styles of music you play?
It's Just awesome for what it is! Sweeeet!

What are those styles?
Blues and Old Rock

How many channels? Does it have channel switching? Effects loops?
One Channel no waiting!

Headphone jack?
Yes a HeadPhone Jack/Lineout Combo

What features do you wish it had? Why? Are there features you never use?
A better Chorus (IMO) and power button on top would be nice.

Where do you use this amp? Does it have enough power for you?
In Home use mainly to jam with CD backings and halfway up is more then enough power. Some outside porch playing is fun now too!

Feel free to enter any other features (stereo, tube or solid state, etc.).
Battery power.. nice feature for taking it along anywhere, built like a tank the size of a battery. Sweeeet!

I bought this little gem a month or so ago from Musiciansfriend.com and have not passed a day yet of playing through it. It just sounds Sweeeeet! The Reverb and delay I use but the Chorus I do not, it has a bit to much depth for me personally. I really like the sound of the black face and the JC, the acoustic is workable and the rest are there for some purpose I have yet to decide on.. I like old rock and blues so this might be the reason. The other features are nice effects/toys..but I do not use them. I play Fenders and numerous copy's of LP's through it and they all sound good. Even the OE-30 I bought sounds lush comming through it. I run a bad monkey(check this out awesome tube like overdrive for around 40 bucks) and old DOD Ice Box Chorus (Under rated Chorus IMO) through it and the sounds through a headset just sound awesome for such a little amp. Through the speaker it has a very good sound, which compares to anything in it's size out there IMHO. Loud enough? you bet it is! In a home cranked halfway up, just jamming with a CD will be all the volume you will ever need . The design is excellent and well thought out. Think of a car battery and you have the size right and the strength it seems to have. All controls are on the top back side making it easy to point it at your audience and jam away..Although the power button is located on the back and can get cumbersome at times trying to locate it without looking. The AC cord is usually plugged in for mine but I have tried the battery option and jammed all nite. Either way this amp is pretty quiet till your past the 5 mark on gain and volume at which point some noise does come through but just slightly. The Line out to record to computer/4 track etc is not the best there is.. loses something which I can't figure out yet..Mic'ed is fine though so no biggie to me as I already had that setup. You could not go wrong getting this as a first or extra amp.. Roland is making an excellent product here that should last a lifetime. Its just plain Sweeeeeet!

Can you depend on it? Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
It's not for gigging (well, maybe mic'ed or run it through something with more power) but I would depend on it.. it's very solid!

Has the amp ever broken down? Because of neglect of regular servicing (as in tubes), or just plain neglect?

Only a few months old.. to new to tell, but it's a Roland!

If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?

Have not dealt with them.. NO Opinion.

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
I been playing on and off for 30 plus years. Hobby not pro.. many fenders and LP copies.. a 335 copy etc etc

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
I would replace this in a minute.

what do you love about it? What do you hate?
Size and weight with the battery backup is a major plus. Only thing I hate about it, was not getting one sooner.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
Compared to pocket rockets etc.. this is small enough for me and has the option of not using headphones.

Anything you wish it had?
Would like to add... GET one if your thinking portable or if you want a great amp with features for house jaming..it's all there in one nice Sweeeeeet little box
Anything else you'd like to share?

I bought a Roland Microcube a while ago and I am crazy about it.
I intended to use it for traveling and stuff, but it has become one of my best liked practice amps. And it's portable too!

Guess what? I even started a yohoo user group about this little devil, check: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Roland_Microcube/

Suitable for all styles: from jazz, blues to metal. Tanx to the COSM modeling you can choose your sound. I play one week only bluesy stuff, but maybe the next week I will only rip metal riffs. With this little devil, that's no problem!
Keep in mind that it is a 5 inch speaker, so you want gig in a stadium with it.

It's a BOSS!

No problem encountered.

Fine fine fine!
For versatile bedroom rockers like me, it is a excellent product. For the money (109 euro) it is worth every cent. It has really surprised me. 10+

Features are pretty well covered ..losts of bang for the buck.
You can pretty much nail any sound with this little guy
Mostly used for practice, need to dig out my multi track and try it for recording ;should be cool.
Speaker out would be nice, if a Smokey can drive a cab this sure could.

The sounds are VERY authentic, sounds best thru phones, bass notes are a bit farty on the clean models. Effects are limited by single knobs, but usable.

Seems well made, could be used as pre amp to gig thru the PA

Good web site, picked up the manual there.

Cool concept, very usefull, nice intro to modeling; a bit better speaker would help , but hey, it's cheep and cheerful.